Her locks unveiled - Black in White

Book excerpt: Ordinary people have presented extraordinary stories through the power of poetry, shedding light on the challenges of racism, so we never forget its ugliness and we recognise the need to address it if we as a people are to progress. Dr Marvelle Brown, Associate Professor – Programme Team Lead for Public Health, University of Hertfordshire Charlotte, your latest book…like the others, is full of insight, forcing one to think about the world we have constructed yet full of inspiration for change – thanks to you and the other contributors. Anna Kyprianou, Pro Chancellor, Middlesex University Charlotte Shyllon was raised a diplomat’s daughter and lived in a ‘privilege bubble’, not knowingly impacted by racism until she entered the world of work. A former pharmacist and award-winning journalist, she has worked in the charity and corporate world for 30 years. Over the years, she encountered occasional incidents of racism and unconscious bias, and just accepted that these came with the territory. In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, she wrote her first book of poems, Black in White, about some of these experiences. Inspired to continue to air stories about racism, in 2021 she launched an annual poetry competition to elicit poems about other people’s experiences; she shares the winning and highly commended entries in a new poetry anthology every year, along with several of her own new poems. In addition to Black in White, Charlotte runs a communications and equality, diversity and inclusion consultancy. She is British, of Sierra Leonean parentage, and a proud mum of two.